The Punch Audio Martilo enters a competitive IEM market with an ambitious design and a distinctive approach to personal audio. It promises a listening experience that will appeal to enthusiasts looking beyond more familiar brands and conventional options. Let’s explore its build, comfort, design, and sound performance to determine whether it deserves a place in your IEM collection.
What You Get
- Punch Audio Martilo x1 Pair
- Earphone Cable x1
- 3.5 mm Plug Adapter x1
- 4.4 mm Plug Adapter x1
- Silicone Ear Tips x3 Pairs
- Foam Ear Tips x3 Pairs
- Nozzle Filters x2 Sets
- Earphone Case x1
Look & Feel
The Martilo has a pretty standard IEM shell, but its design is still pretty nice. It’s a 3D-printed housing ergonomically shaped to fit the contours of your ear. They’re lightweight, and the surface is smooth so the housing can feel like it disappears when worn for a few hours. I like the red scaled design, but the faceplate doesn’t pop in a flashy way. The outer resin gives it shine, but It’s not trying to stand out, making it consistent with the shell’s material. This is what prices the Martilo, but even then its appearance can still make it look like a more expensive model.
Design
The Martilo uses a five-driver hybrid configuration that combines two 8mm dynamic drivers, two Knowles RDE balanced armatures, and a planar driver. The dual dynamic drivers handle the low frequencies, while the balanced armatures reproduce the midrange and the planar driver provides greater speed and definition in the treble. Each driver is pair-matched during assembly to help maintain consistent performance between the left and right earpieces.
- Sensitivity: 100 dB @ 1 kHz (±1 dB)
- Frequency Response: 10 Hz–22 kHz
- Impedance: 9 Ω @ 1 kHz (±1.5 Ω)
Soundstage
One of the first things that should stand out to you almost immediately is the Martilo’s broad soundstage and imaging. Instruments will appear across a wide spectrum, occupying distinct areas in the left and right channels. Sounds that are panned to the extreme ends of each channel expand past your shoulders and inhabit a space that gives the Martilo a significant wingspan. Its stereo properties are very concise and even tactile in their spatial positioning, adhering to a level of accuracy that appears pinpoint.
Layers of sound fold over and under each other with grace, organizing and stacking instruments in a way that feels direct without being too linear. The Martilo doesn’t have a very cavernous sound, but its headspace never appears limited in its display. Its imaging is presented as a reliable monitor, with all elements well separated and strongly localized. This is helped by the feeling of empty space between sound elements that allows you to perceive the soundstage with more dimension. It’s immersive and accurate for assessing a stereo mix.
Low End
The brand is called Punch Audio, and that’s pretty much describing what the bass of the Martilo does. Not only is its impact very solid and gripping, but it also has the right amount of grit behind it to give the lows a rounded edge. Without the Martilo’s grounded foundation from the sub-bass, it wouldn’t have as much vigor and depth as it does. The extension in the sub-bass does a lot to lift the bass frequencies, because without the vibration of the bottom end, the surface timbre would be a bit too smooth.
Singular bass notes aren’t exactly carved out, but the texture and overall tonality are gratifying enough to give synth bass and kick drums some forceful weight. Electronic tracks are where the bass is more favorable, but physical bass strums aren’t as elegant. The mid-bass doesn’t get muddy, but its outward ressonance gets slightly messy once you get into the midrange.
Mids
While not completely foggy, the midrange faces the issue of too many dips in frequency, resulting in instances of hollowness. If you favor a V-shaped midrange, the Martilo will sound familiar and can be heard as cozy as long as you’re exclusively listening to tracks with more synths and pads and fewer physical instruments. You don’t get a ton of detail in live recordings, but the flavourful timbre of a V-shaped sound signature will give dance and hip-hop tracks an injection of emphasis. That means vocals will cut through pretty well and will have the most natural tonality in the midrange resposne.
Highs
The highs never call a lot of attention to themselves, and it creates a treble that feels very plain. It also won’t be fatiguing at all for listeners sensitive to bright tones. This tuning makes sense when I hear it, and the flattening of the treble will make the Martilo a smooth listening experience. Nothing ever feels completely dulled, and the Martilo even has instances of treble click that help detail the shape of the highs, but most of the time they feel pretty muted.
Summary
The Punch Audio Martilo is a comfortable and immersive hybrid IEM that stands out most for its wide soundstage, precise imaging, and forceful low end. Its bass brings satisfying weight to electronic music, hip-hop, and other rhythm-driven genres, while its relaxed treble keeps the presentation smooth and non-fatiguing. The recessed and occasionally hollow midrange prevents the Martilo from being a fully natural or highly revealing monitor, particularly with acoustic instruments and live recordings. Still, listeners looking for a spacious, bass-forward IEM with a forgiving V-shaped sound signature should find plenty to enjoy.
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The Punch Audio Martilo is available at Audio46.
